The Ancient City of Gaochang in Turpan

The ancient city of Gaochang is located at the southern foot of the Flaming Mountains, in the delta of the Mutou Gou River, in Sanbao Township, more than 40 kilometers east of Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Covering a total area of 2 million square meters, it was the central town of the Turpan Basin from the Western Han to the Yuan and Ming periods (1st century BC to 14th century AD), spanning approximately 1400 years. The ancient city of Gaochang includes three layers of cities: the outer city, the inner city, and the palace city (Khan Fortress). Within the city site, there are numerous religious ruins and relics. The temple buildings contain Manichaean murals and Buddhist murals, statues, and more. The city is rich in relics, with documents and classics in different scripts unearthed. The palace city is located at the northernmost part, with two well-preserved temple ruins at the southwest and southeast corners of the outer city. In the middle of the northern part of the inner city, there is an irregular square palace city, commonly known as the "Khan Fortress." The ancient city of Gaochang was abandoned in the late 13th century due to wars, and most of the buildings have disappeared. In the northern palace city, many tall palace foundations remain, generally about three and a half to four meters high, indicating the presence of palace buildings up to four stories high. To the north of Gaochang city was originally a vast Gobi desert, where most residents were buried after death. The entire cemetery extends from the northeast to the northwest of the city, about five kilometers long from east to west and two kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of about ten square kilometers. Since the beginning of this century, more than 500 tombs have been excavated and cleaned here, unearthing various historical relics such as documents, silk, wool, cotton, linen fabrics, epitaphs, coins, clay and wood figurines, pottery and wooden utensils, paintings, crops, fruits, and food, numbering in the tens of thousands.